Vigilance probe against CEC Gyanesh Kumar in connection with 2006 road project ongoing Minister

    Thiruvananthapuram, Oct 29 (PTI) Keralam Minister P K Basheer on Thursday said a preliminary inquiry by the VACB ordered in connection with allegations of corruption in a road project undertaken two decades ago when CEC Gyanesh Kumar was the PWD secretary was ongoing and its report is not yet available.

    Basheer was responding to queries, during the question hour in the Assembly, by BJP MLAs B B Gopakumar, V Muraleedharan and Rajeev Chandrasekhar regarding the status of the vigilance probe initiated in the matter.

    The Public Works Department minister also said that the preliminary enquiry was ordered as there were certain discrepancies in the probe conducted into the matter in 2006 by the Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau (VACB).

    He said that the suicide of a project manager of a Malaysian company which had initially taken up the work to reconstruct the M C Road as part of the road project, was not subject of the 2006 vigilance probe.

    The minister said that the suicide of the project manager might be investigated by the government if it was deemed necessary to determine whether any financial exploitation was involved.

    The minister was referring to the alleged corruption in the Kerala State Transport Project (KSTP), undertaken in 2006 when Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar was serving as Public Works Department secretary.

    In 2006, the KSTP undertook a World Bank-funded project worth Rs 215 crore to reconstruct the MC Road from Angamaly to Thiruvananthapuram.

    PATI-BEL, a joint venture between a Malaysian firm and Bhageeratha Engineering, was awarded the project.

    A Malaysian company carried out the work. Its project engineer, Lee See Been, allegedly raised several complaints during construction before returning to Malaysia, where he died by suicide.

    Basheer, in his response, claimed that the government incurred a loss of Rs 700 crore because contracts for KSTP road works were awarded to selected companies at tender amounts that exceeded the estimated costs.

    "While the estimate prepared for road improvements was Rs 787 crore, the contracts were awarded for Rs 1,209 crore. Though the estimate prepared for road construction was Rs 244 crore, the contracts were awarded for Rs 343 crore. The estimate for land acquisition and rehabilitation was Rs 187 crore, but Rs 323 crore was spent for this purpose," he said, giving details of the various alleged irregularities in connection with the project.

    He further said that according to a 2004 report by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG), the government suffered a loss of Rs 84 crore due to the awarding of contracts at inflated tender amounts.

    In addition to these, a foreign consultancy firm was engaged by KSTP, instead of using services of Indian agencies like National Transportation Planning and Research Centre (NATPAC), and a fee of Rs 50 crore was paid to it.

    "Furthermore, a 'mobilisation amount' was sanctioned to the firms even before the contracts were signed," he claimed.

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)